Modern computing devices, including personal computers, smart phones, tablet computers, music players, and other electronic devices often employ a user interface that enables a user to make various selections to control the device. These user interfaces typically use icons to represent different operations. When the icon is selected by the user, a respective function or application is called and/or run by the device. Users have become familiar with this use of icons, which involves static icons that include distinctive attributes that enable a user to recognize the icon and its association with the respective function or application. Since the inception in operating systems for personal computers, the implementation of icons has remained more or less unchanged. Icons are still employed as static images that occupy part of a display.
The popularity of mobile telecommunication devices continues to grow. These devices typically include a smaller display space than non-mobile computing devices, and thus effective use of the display space has become an increasing concern for software designers. Initially, many of the concepts used to control non-mobile computing devices were implemented in mobile telecommunications devices, despite differences in use, size, and functionality of mobile devices as compared to non-mobile devices. As mobile telecommunications devices continue to evolve, such as by more effectively accessing information from the Internet and other data, their control features and user interfaces should be improved to increase user experience when users interact with the devices.